


Lover (H.S)

by xxalwayssofia



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M, Harry Styles - Freeform, I LOVE THIS WORK, I hope you like it, but close enough, he falls in love with this girl, her name is cornelia, i love them, its kinda short but ok, just read it, no not cornelia street, oh wait yes lover as in the album by tay, relationships, yeah idk how to put tags, yes the curly lad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29372352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxalwayssofia/pseuds/xxalwayssofia
Summary: Harry didn't mean to fall in love with Cornelia Brooks. But London has a funny thing of doing things, doesn't it?
Relationships: Harry Styles/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 78





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I wrote this in like less than two days, and it's pretty short. But I hope you like it :)

**Lover**

**Chapter 1: Friday**

Harry was running late. Really late actually. He did have a reputation of being fairly late to his college classes, but he didn’t think he has ever been quite this late. Last night’s party had definitely been a mistake. Damn Niall and his Irish partying tendencies. Niall was Harry’s best mate. They had met on their first day of freshman year at university and had immediately clicked. Their friendship after that first day had been natural. Niall was a good lad; really, he was. However, he did tend to go a little bit too hard during parties. He drank relentlessly; according to him, he didn’t get drunk as easily since he was Irish.

Harry was cursing Niall in his hungover brain as he quickly got ready for class. He’d have to skip taking a shower, but he tried to make up for that by spraying deodorant. A ton of deodorant, to be specific. He grabbed a granola bar on his way out, and quickly made his way to his car. He was hungover, exhausted and his head hurt a little too much for him to actually be ale to drive effortlessly. But of course, taking the public bus would take longer, and he couldn’t afford to be later now, could he?

Harry ignored the pounding in his head as he revved the engine of his car and stepped on the gas. Thankfully, his university wasn’t too far. It was just a ten-minute drive, but only if traffic was sparse. Fortunately, traffic wasn’t too much of a bother today and he made it to university fast enough. There was just one open spot in the parking lot, and that too, some other car was already making its way towards it. Oh, hell no. Harry quickly manoeuvred his car with ease and slid into the last parking spot. The other car braked suddenly, in order to avoid crashing into his car. The window of the other car was open, and he could clearly hear the driver cussing him out as he stepped out of his car, his bag on his shoulder.

The other driver was a girl. She was rather gorgeous; her hair was the colour of the finest honey from the best honeycombs, and her eyes were an absolute gorgeous shade of grey. They reminded Harry of the melancholic grey clouds which presented themselves right before a perfectly chilling storm. Not that the girl’s eyes held any hint of sadness or melancholy or anything of such sort. No, the only emotion Harry could make out from her eyes were annoyance, frustration and maybe a hint of anger.

As much as he would like to stare at her, and maybe even get her name and number, Harry was super late to class, and he had to get there immediately. He shot the girl an apologetic look before going about on his merry way.

Fast forward a few hours later, and Harry was ready to be done with classes for the day. Unfortunately, he still had one last class left. Political science. Sometimes he really wonders why he ever decided to take such a boring class like political science. Of all the classes he could take, he had to go and pick this one. Jesus Christ. It wasn’t so bad, he supposed. At least, the professor was kind of cool.

Harry got to his last class of the day early enough to secure a decent seat by the windows. He was just in the process of getting his textbook out when he heard an annoyed voice speak next to him, “Oh, great! As if this day couldn’t get any worse. Now I have to sit with this guy of all people. Just the cherry on top, isn’t it?” Huh. Quite a lovely British accent, Harry noticed.

He looked up to see who the speaker was, and to his utmost surprise, it was the girl was earlier today morning. Yeah, the other driver. Harry moved his seat so she could sit next to him, “Oh, sorry? Uh…” She snapped as she flopped down ungracefully onto her seat, “Don’t bother. You have annoyed me enough for one day.”

Harry spoke incredulously, “This is the first time I’ve ever said a word to you.” She glared at him, “Yeah, and? You don’t need to utter actual words to be annoying. I guess you do have a talent after all.”

Harry blinked; okay this girl was literally a stranger to him was rather hostile. He started, “Is this about the parking?”

The girl mocked him, “Is this about the parking? Of course, it is! Do you know how late I was to class because of you? I saw the spot first; I should have totally been able to park there and get to class in time. But no, you had to be an asshole and steal my spot. I had to spend the next twenty minutes trying to find a spot!”

Harry winced, “I’m sorry about that. In my defence, I was really late to class, so…”

She scoffed, “That’s no excuse. But whatever. Please just refrain from even looking at me for the next fifty minutes, okay? Thanks.”

Harry didn’t know what to say to that, so he just kept quiet. Okay, to be fair, her annoyance was justified, but she was being way too hostile than necessary. Maybe she was having a bad day or something. He shrugged it off; he just had to tolerate her presence for fifty minutes. Then he could go back to his flat. Sometimes, he really wonders why he decided to not live on campus. It’d have been easier to get to class on mornings like today if he lived on campus. But eh, no use thinking of that now.

For the next forty-five minutes, everything was going great. The professor droned on about some government, and Harry made his notes, successfully ignoring the girl next to him. She ignored him as well, and it was pretty great. But of course, that wouldn’t do, now would it? The professor decided to drop a bomb shell on them during the last five minutes. Apparently, they had to pair up to write an essay. The topic of the essay was quite easy. They had to choose a country and write about its government and constitution and how the newer amendments have helped in improving the government system and in maintaining peace within the country.

No, the topic wasn’t the problem. The whole partners business was. The professor made himself very clear when he said that everyone had to pair up with their desk partner. And of course, Harry’s desk partner for the day was the driver girl. The look of pure horror on her face when she realized she’d have to work with Harry would have been quite priceless that is, if Harry wasn’t horror-stricken as well. She gaped at the professor and Harry alternatively before finally resigning to the fact that she had no other option.

Harry started speaking, an apologetic undertone to his voice, “So, since we’re going to be partners, I guess an introduction is in order?”

The girl clenched and unclenched her fists before taking a deep breath, “Right. I’m Cornelia Brooks.”

Harry couldn’t stop an amused chuckle from escaping his lips, “Cornelia?”

That was obviously the wrong thing to say. The girl, Cornelia, glared at him, “What’s wrong with my name?”

Harry shook his head quickly, “Nothing! Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. I just… Cornelia as in like Cornelia Street?”

She looked at him suspiciously, “You listen to Taylor Swift?”

Harry shrugged, “Who doesn’t? Lover is my favourite album. I guess, we aren’t walking Cornelia Street anytime soon, huh?”

Cornelia glared at him again, “ _We_ are not doing anything, except writing our damn essay. And speaking of that, you still haven’t introduced yourself. Get on with it; you’re wasting my time.”

There was no winning with her, was there? Harry sighed, “Harry Styles.”

Cornelia scoffed, “Ha, even your name sounds pretentious. And what even is that shitload of deodorant you’re wearing? Jeez.”

Harry gaped at her for a few senses before he regained his senses. He was going to excuse his actions, but then he decided against it. She wasn’t worth it. So, instead, he just rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Do you want to swap phone numbers to talk about the essay?”

Her refusal came quick, “Absolutely not! I am _not_ giving my phone number to some pretentious jerk like you.”

Harry controlled his temper, “Okay, well how else do you suggest we communicate for our essay?” He added with a snort, “With emails?”

Cornelia’s eyes lit up, “That’s actually a good idea! Wow, who knew? You do have brain cells after all.”

Harry’s jaw dropped, “You can’t actually be serious. Who even uses email anymore?”

Cornelia sounded suspiciously chipper as she said, “I do! And I’m totally serious. Yes, tell me your email.”

Harry stared at her in disbelief for a few seconds. She stared right back, her stance completely serious. Harry sighed to himself; there was really no winning with her. In the next couple of minutes, Harry ranted his email address to her, and she quickly sent him and period symbol, so he could have her email address as well. Yes, a period symbol. A full stop? Whatever it’s called, she sent him a single dot. Not even hello. Jesus Christ.

Once that was done, she just walked off; not wanting to be in Harry’s presence more than necessary. Harry just sighed to himself before he started walking to his car. It looks like he’ll be sighing to himself a lot when he’s around Cornelia. Fun.

**Chapter 2: Saturday**

It’s a good thing that the next day was Saturday. Harry was sick of university, and a two-day break was exactly what he needed. He had elaborate plans for his weekend. He would have pancakes for breakfast on both days, with his favourite brand of maple syrup. Being a college student meant making do with whatever he sees first as breakfast. But during the weekends, he liked to make himself something nice for all his meals. Niall, who was also his flatmate, was really appreciative of that.

Other than decent meals, Harry also wanted to maybe read a new book during the weekend. He loved reading. It was a shame that he was so busy with college work and hence didn’t get to read as much. Harry was also positive that Niall would find a party for them to go to on Saturday night. In conclusion, Harry had solid weekend plans. But it was plainly obvious that nothing was going to go his way anytime soon. Harry had just finished breakfast, when his phone screen lit up with an email. Literally nobody uses email anymore. So, of course, it was from Cornelia. Harry groaned in annoyance before opening the email.

_Harry,  
Considering that you and I both have two days off, it would make sense to get done with our essay during the weekend. After all, the sooner the better.  
Cornelia_

Oh, holy mother of Christ. She was not kidding about emailing about the essay. Niall, who was intrigued by Harry’s groan, wanted to know what was wrong. He promptly dissolved into peals of laughter when Harry showed him the email. Harry flipped him off before sending a response email to Cornelia.

_Uh hey. I had plans but sure, whatever. When and where?_

Her response came through two minutes later:

_Harry,  
I doubt your plans are more important than this essay. Let’s meet at the nearest Starbucks in fifteen minutes. Sounds good to me.  
Cornelia_

After that email, Harry decided that he didn’t like Cornelia. She didn’t even ask where and when he wanted to meet? She was the bossy kind. Jeez. He wasn’t really in the mood to put up an argument, hence he just went along with it. At least he was done with breakfast. He was disappointed that he wouldn’t get to read his book, but he was reluctantly fine with giving it up for his political science essay. It _was_ an important essay after all.

He picked up his car keys and walked downstairs. Within ten minutes, he was at the nearest Starbucks. He just hoped that “the nearest Starbucks” was the same one for both him and Cornelia. Thankfully, it was. Otherwise, Harry didn’t know what he’d do. He’d get harassed by Cornelia no matter what he did.

Cornelia was sitting at a table inside the café already. Her laptop sat open on top of the table, with a Starbucks cup next to it. Harry went ahead to the counter and ordered his usual coffee, which was ready soon. He got his cup and went ahead to take a seat opposite to Cornelia. She spoke, a snarky tone to her voice, “Took you long enough.”

Harry blinked, “Excuse me? I’m here on time.”

Cornelia smiled with faux sweetness, “You still arrived after me.”

Harry supressed his urge to pick a fight with her, “Anyways. Which country should we do the paper on?”

Cornelia looked up in confusion, “Huh? Oh. Don’t worry, I’ve already decided on which country we will be researching and writing about.”

Harry said disbelievingly, “Excuse me? Last time I checked; this was a partnered project. That means we are supposed to _discuss_ the important details.”

Cornelia looked at her laptop screen and that back at him, “Oh. I guess, you…” She started again, “I guess that makes sense. My apologies. We should discuss it, yes. What did you have in mind?”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Alright, alright. Which country did you pick?”

Cornelia bit her lip, “Belgium. I have a friend in Belgium actually. Their government and constitution are quite interesting actually. I figured that it’d be fun to research and write about it. Of course, I didn’t consult you first and that was wrong of me. I really do apologize…”

Harry cut her off, “It’s fine. I’ve heard quite a lot of about the Belgian government. I agree, it would be interesting to research about it. We can go ahead with Belgium then.”

Cordelia blinked once. And twice. A small smile spread on her face, “Oh. That’s great? I guess?”

Harry chuckled, “Sure.”

Just when he thought that things were finally going to take a hundred-eighty degrees turn with Cornelia, she narrowed her eyes at him, “You didn’t bring your laptop? We literally have to write a whole entire paper. What, did you think I’d do all the work?”

Harry mentally cursed himself for not bringing his laptop, but to Cornelia, he made an excuse, “Sorry, um… My laptop didn’t have charge. I’ll bring it next time, I promise.”

She scoffed, “Lame excuse.” But she didn’t say anything other than that. Harry just sighed to himself, mentally preparing himself for a two-day work session with this infuriating girl.

***

On Saturday, Harry and Cornelia spent three hours at Starbucks, researching Belgium and its government. The Belgian parliamentary system was a lot to unpack, so of course, three hours was nowhere near enough to cover everything. They probably read one-third of all the material they could find. After three hours, Cornelia complained that her eyes hurt because of staring at the screen too much.

Harry nodded in agreement, “Same. We should continue this later. You could come over to my flat later in the evening to work on this again.”

Cornelia’s face held an expression of disgust; like she couldn’t believe Harry just asked her to come to his flat. As if that was a lewd gesture on his part. Neither of them said anything for a minute, as Cornelia processed this invitation in her head. Finally, she sighed, sounding resigned, “Fine. But only because I live in the dorms and hence share a room with my friend. She would be quite distracting, and we wouldn’t be able to get anything done.”

Harry shrugged, “All good. I have to warn you though; I have a flat mate, as well. He probably won’t stick around, though.”

Cornelia raised her eyebrows, “Probably? Please make sure he isn’t a distracting presence. Thanks.” She then stood up and packed up her things, “I’ll see you at five. Email me your address by four thirty in the evening at latest.”

Harry was left gaping at her retreating figure. There is definitely something wrong with her, he decided. But he wasn’t going to waste his time thinking about that, of course. He walked to his car, driving back to his flat. At least, he still had some time to read his book.

Niall was watching telly in the living room. He looked up at Harry with a shit-eating grin when he walked in, “So, how did it go? The study meeting with Cornelia Street?” Harry couldn’t stop himself from laughing, “Cornelia Street. Nice. And yeah, it was alright. She is impossible to please, that bloody woman.”

Niall blinked innocently, “Why, mate, I thought you’re good in bed.”

Harry looked his flatmate in confusion. That was so random. It hit him soon after. ‘She is impossible to please.’ Harry chuckled dryly, “Ha, ha. A true comedian you are, mate.”

Niall winked, “You admit it then. You want her.”

Harry scoffed, “Uh, I admitted no such thing. I mean, yeah, she’s hot. Really hot, actually. But she’s also a pain in the arse. So, no. That’s never happening.”

Niall nodded in understanding, “Ah. Well, good luck with the paper then, I suppose.”

Harry sighed as he sat down next to him, “Thanks, mate. I’ll be needing it. Oh and, before I forget, she’s going to be coming over at five to work on the paper again. So, you’ll need to be a little less noisy. She’s really prissy.”

Niall just shrugged, not really saying anything. Harry was going to read his book; he really was, but the television was already on and whatever Niall was watching was kind of interesting. So, Harry just stayed there, watching telly with his best mate.

Later that evening, Cornelia knocked on Harry’s door exactly at five. Thankfully, Harry had remembered to email her his address. He was pretty sure she’d literally have his head if he hadn’t done so. Niall quickly said hello to Cornelia before retreating into his room. Good lad, making himself scarce. Surprisingly, Cornelia was actually nice to Niall. It was like a completely different Cornelia Brooks.

She politely said hi to him and thanked him for letting her come over. Harry just stared at her. Cornelia was capable of being nice? That was interesting news to him. She was quite an anomaly, wasn’t she? Harry was rather intrigued by this girl. Of course, she’d probably kick him if he said anything of this sort. They spent the next few hours reading up on their research material, trying their best not to argue over everything. Well at least, Harry was trying.

**Chapter 3: Sunday**

Sunday was really rough. Cornelia came over fairly early with her laptop, so they could continue with their research. Of course, Harry was really, really hungover. Since the previous day had been Saturday, Niall had dragged him out to a party. Both of them had gotten really drunk, and hence Harry was sporting a killer headache on Sunday morning. Usually, on hungover mornings, the first thing he did was take aspirin. Then if he felt up to it, he made a decent breakfast, which Niall tried to help with. Everything else on the schedule was after aspirin and breakfast.

But today, he woke up to repetitive knocks on the door. Repetitive, loud knocks. He pulled himself out of bed with great difficulty and downed two aspirins before walking over to the door. While he was making his way to the door, Niall yelled out, “For fuck’s sake, Harry. Make the noise stop!”

Harry muttered, “I’m trying.” He then finally got to the door and swung it open. And of course, it was Cornelia. Cornelia fucking Brooks, with her pretty hair in a ponytail and her face completely devoid of any makeup. Her grey eyes looked impatient. She pushed Harry aside and barged into his flat, putting her laptop bag onto the dining table. She grumbled, “Can you please put on a shirt?”

Harry gaped at her in annoyance, “Excuse me? Do you fucking know what time it is?” Cornelia blinked, “It’s eight in the morning.” Harry huffed, “Exactly! It’s fucking eight on a Sunday morning. You can’t just show up to people’s houses so early without announcing it first.”

Cornelia looked down, biting her lip, “Well, I emailed you. And I assumed you saw it…”

Harry scoffed, “Of course you thought that. Because everything has to go according to you at all times.”

Cornelia looked stricken at that. She flushed, “Um. Sorry. I’ll come back later. It’s fine.”

Aw, heck. Now Harry felt bad for kind of being rude to her. He sighed, “Stop. It’s okay. Sorry, I’m just really hungover. Niall and I went to a party yesterday and yeah.”

Cornelia scoffed lightly, “Of course you went to a party yesterday. Typical college guy, aren’t you?”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Whatever. I’ll be right out after I shower. Stay put.”

Cornelia asked, “Can I play some music?”

Harry looked over at Niall’s bedroom door before responding, “Oh, I guess so. Niall is sleeping, however, so you might want to keep the volume down.”

Cornelia just nodded at him as he went back into his room. He took his sweet time brushing his teeth and taking a shower. Then he comfortably got dressed before walking back out. Niall was awake by now as well, and he was sitting at the dining table with Cornelia. He two of them were sort of talking. Niall was hungover but Cornelia was teasing him and laughing, which in turn made him smile as well.

Harry felt a surprising twinge of jealousy in his gut. Which was uncalled for. He had no business feeling jealous over anything Cornelia did. He just… Wished that she talked to him how she talks to Niall. She actually laughs and smiles in his presence. Harry sighed to himself, for different reasons this time; Cornelia really didn’t like him.

Harry pushed aside all these weird thoughts aside, as he walked to the kitchen area. He turned to Niall, “Pancakes?” Niall groaned in response, “Yes, please. Your pancakes sound like heaven right now.”

Cornelia looked at Harry, “You’re going to make pancakes?”

Harry scoffed, “Well, yeah. We need breakfast. Not all of us wake up early and eat breakfast at the crack of dawn like you, you know.”

Cornelia mumbled, “I don’t wake up at the crack of the dawn. And I don’t usually eat breakfast.”

Oh? Harry looked at her suspiciously, “Would you like to eat breakfast with us, Cornelia?”

Cornelia was quick to shake her head, “No! I can’t! Like I said, I can come back later, if you want…”  
Harry cut her off with a frustrated groan, “Cornelia, for god’s sake, just go with it for once. I’m making you pancakes as well. If you don’t want them, you can hand them over to Niall. He never says no to food.”

Niall mumbled, “That’s true.” He then moaned about his headache a couple more times before going back into his room to shower.

Cornelia watched him go for a few seconds before turning back to Harry, “Well, if you’re sure.”

Harry just shot her a grin, before going on to make pancakes. Over the next twenty minutes, he whipped up delicious pancakes. Niall was out soon enough, and he poured out three glasses of orange juice. Soon enough, the pancakes were ready, and the three of them sat down to eat.

Cornelia, for all purposes, moaned when she took the first bite of her pancakes, “Oh my god. These are so good.”

Harry smirked at her, “Yeah? You like them, huh?”

Cornelia rolled her eyes, “These pancakes are the only thing I like about you. Other than that, you’re useless.”

Harry chuckled, “You’re so sweet to me, Cornelia. I’m flattered, really.”

Cornelia snorted in response, “Dork. Whatever.”

They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence. Once they were done eating, Niall said he’d do the dishes. He and Harry had a pretty reasonable deal; Harry cooks, and Niall subsequently cleans. Cornelia offered to help, but Niall brushed aside her offer immediately, saying that he could handle it. Cornelia shot him a grateful look, which he acknowledged with a smile.

Once Harry and Cornelia were seated in the living room with their laptops, Harry couldn’t help himself from asking, “Do you have a crush on Niall or something?”

Cornelia stared at him in disbelief with widened eyes, “Seriously? Of course, not.”

Harry stated in confusion, “But you’re so nice to him.”

Cornelia raised her eyebrows, “Yeah, and? I’m nice to everybody. Except you, of course.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Thanks for the special treatment. I’m so lucky, aren’t I?”

She looked at him with a dorky grin, “Yep. You should consider yourself incredibly lucky, Styles.”

Harry just rolled his eyes, before turning back to his laptop. Ha. Cornelia really didn’t like him, did she? Not that he cared, of course. For the next few hours, they did some more research. Cornelia kept needing to take breaks. She really didn’t like staring at the screen for longer periods of time. She said that it gave her terrible headaches. It was understandable, Harry supposed.

After a while, they got really bored, continuously reading all their research material. So, Cornelia had the brilliant (not) idea to play music as they studied. True to their nature, they bickered about what music they should play for a while, before settling on common ground. Surprisingly, they did find an album they both liked. To be honest, it wasn’t that surprising.

One guess on which album it was, quick. It was Lover by Taylor Swift, of course. Cornelia burst into laughter when Harry suggested they listen to that particular album. And of course, Harry played the song ‘Cornelia Street’ first, which made the girl Cornelia laugh uncontrollably. She apparently found the whole situation rather funny. But on the bright side, both of them actually really liked the album, so they both agreed to listen to it.

Harry actually had fun while doing the rest of the research; it was a pleasant change. Soon enough, Cornelia decided that she had had enough of researching for one day. She packed up her things, “I’m done with this for now. Jesus Christ. Belgium’s government is so complicated.”

Harry groaned, “Don’t look at me; it was your idea to work with Belgium.”

She protested, “You agreed too!”

Harry just sighed, “Whatever. I assume you’ll want to want to work on this again later today?”

Cornelia looked down at her phone and gave his question some thought before shaking her head slowly, “Actually, I think it’s best if we resume all of this bullshit tomorrow. After all, we do have a week to complete this. Well, five more days, to be fair.”

Harry considered that with a smug grin, “Whatever happened to the sooner the better?”

Cornelia smacked his arm, “Shut it. I’m tired. We’ll do this after classes tomorrow.”

Harry laughed, “Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow then, Cornelia.”

She rolled her eyes for the last time right before she exited his flat, “See you.”

**Chapter 4: Monday**

For the rest of Sunday, Harry had a rather pleasant day. He finally got to his book and read quite a few chapters. It was a perfect evening. Then later that evening, Harry and Niall made spaghetti for dinner. Well, harry made, and Niall helped. During weekdays, they usually order in or eat instant food like ramen or something of the same sort. But on weekends, they had enough time to eat a fairly healthy homemade meal. Harry loved it, really.

The next morning, on Monday, he had to wake up to an alarm again. Harry complained to himself as he got out of bed. He loved the feeling of waking up naturally, without an alarm. Saturday and Sunday were the only two days he got to do that. And Cornelia ruined Sunday morning for him. Well, that wasn’t exactly the truth. As much as he hated her for waking him up so early, the rest of the morning had been quite fun.

The pancakes and orange juice breakfast, and the hours of research, during which for one hour, they listened to music. All of that had been quite enjoyable. Surprisingly, he was kind of looking forward to seeing Cornelia again. Harry mentally hit himself for evening thinking about that. He did _not_ need to start getting feelings for her or anything. She hated his guts as it was.

Anyway, he pushed all those thoughts aside, as he got ready for classes. He had enough time to shower _and_ get a proper breakfast. Well, a semi-proper breakfast. In other words, he made himself a quick peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He finished his sandwich fast enough, before letting himself out of his apartment, ready to walk to the bus stop.

Since he had enough time, he decided to take the bus. Harry did care about the environment quite a lot, after a lot. Public transport was better than taking his personal car, for the sake of the environment’s health. He plugged in his headphones on the bus. That was probably his favourite thing about taking the bus. Just sitting on a seat, looking out of the window, music playing in his ears. There was something special about listening to music using headphones. The music felt more personal somehow. It was like the music was just for his ears. His pleasurable little secret. Harry was weird in some ways, yeah.

The bus came to a halt near his campus soon enough. Harry quickly got off the bus and made his way to the main gates of the campus, through the parking lot. Funnily enough, he spotted Cornelia’s car in the parking lot. He chuckled to himself; were parking lots going to be their thing now? He then mentally scolded himself for thinking that. They weren’t friends or anything; they did not have a thing.

Cornelia parked her car, and spotted Harry immediately. She rolled her eyes at him, “Which poor person did you terrorize today in order to park your car?”

Harry let out a guffaw involuntarily, “I took the bus today, actually.”

Cornelia raised her eyebrows, trying to look unimpressed, “You take the bus?”

Harry shrugged as he started walking next to her, “Yeah, as often as I can. It’s better for the environment.”

Cornelia snorted, “Of course you of all people would say that. You do have to decidedly sound pretentious at all times, after all.”

Harry frowned at that, “It’s not pretentious. There’s nothing wrong with caring about the environment. You should try it sometime too, actually.”

Cornelia said as they were almost up to her first class, “I didn’t say there is anything wrong with caring about the environment. I think that’s really nice, actually. I just think you of all people sound pretentious saying it.”

Harry rolled his eyes as he walked away, since Cornelia had stopped walking, “I’ll see you later, Cornelia Street.” She just laughed at his words before stepping into the classroom.

They next saw each other in their mutual political science class, which was again, the last class of the day. Cornelia had gotten to the classroom first and had taken the seat she had taken the last time. Harry got there soon after, a smirk on his face as he made his way to the seats.

Cornelia complained as he sat down next to her, “Why on earth are you sitting here?”

Harry grinned cheekily, “Why, because we are absolute besties, of course.”

Cornelia wrinkled her nose at the word ‘besties’, “We are not friends. We are absolutely not best friends, Harry.”

Harry nudged her, “You keep telling yourself that.”

Cornelia gaped at him for a minute before huffing and going back to her books. Huh. That was surprising; Cornelia not having a comeback for a change. Maybe she did have a comeback and chose not to say anything. Either way, it was weird. Anyway, for the next fifty minutes, the two of them stood side by side, not really talking, just working in silence. The professor spoke in his usual monotonous voice for the whole class. Harry wondered how he did that, really. How did he manage to sound so boring yet excited at the same time? He figured it’s a good teacher thing. Certain teachers really taught because they genuinely loved doing it. Their political science professor was one of them; there was no doubt about it.

Before dismissing the class, the professor reminded them that their paper was due on the coming Friday. He left the classroom shortly after that. Harry followed Cornelia out of the class in silence. She looked really tired, and he didn’t want to be yelled at again, so he kept his mouth shut.

Since it was the last class of the day, the two of them ended up walking to the parking lot together. Harry finally spoke when they got to Cornelia’s car, “So, when do you want to continue doing the research for the paper? We could go to the Starbucks again.”

Cornelia sighed audibly as she looked at her phone screen, “Um, yeah. Right. The project.” She paused for a few seconds before continuing hesitantly, “I was actually thinking…”

Harry nodded in encouragement, “Yeah?”

She bit her lip, “Well, we’ve been reading up on the topic for the last two days, and I’m genuinely so tired of it. So, well, I was wondering we could watch a bunch of videos and this one movie I found on Belgium government? I just figured it’d be a nice change. We don’t have to, though…”

Harry cut her off with a roll of his eyes; apparently, he had to do that a lot since Cornelia tended to ramble. He gave her a smile, “That’s a really good idea, actually. Hey, how about you come over later and put the videos and the movie in a pen drive? We can plug it into my television and watch it on a bigger screen. Plus, Niall and I were going to order pizza anyway, and you can join us if you want? Make a whole night of it?”

Cornelia eyed him up as she considered that. Finally, she nodded with a small smile, “Alright. That sounds decent. I’ll come over at six?”

Harry rolled his eyes again, “Make that eight. Nobody eats pizza at six, Cornflakes.”

Cornelia blinked in disbelief, “Did you just call me ‘cornflakes’?”

Harry’s lips split into a grin, “It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? It’s the twenty first century, Corn. You can be a street and you can be cereal. You can be whatever you want.”

Cornelia threw her hands up, “I hate you.”

Harry burst out laughing, “Sure you do. I’ll see you at eight then. Goodbye!” He could feel Cornelia’s glare boring into his back as he walked away. He chuckled to himself as he walked to the bus stop. Cornelia was fun to be around, really, Harry couldn’t help thinking as he boarded the bus. Maybe they could be more? No, Harry scolded himself. Cornelia doesn’t like him that way. It’s never going to work. They are just going to finish this project, and then probably never speak again. Harry swallowed uncomfortably at that thought; he dreaded that more than he cared to admit.

Later that evening, Cornelia showed up to Harry’s apartment five minutes after eight. Niall was sitting in the living room when Harry stood up from next to him and strode over to the door. A lazy grin spread over his face when he saw Cornelia, “You, Cornelia, are five minutes late. Finally learning to have fun?”

Cornelia laughed, “Sod off. Traffic was busy.”

Harry nodded knowingly, “Sure, it was. Whatever you say. Anyway, what do you want on your damn pizza?”

Cornelia mulled that over for a few seconds before nodding, sure of her choice, “Pepperoni works for me.”

Harry nodded at her before going back to get his phone and order the pizza on the app. But he couldn’t stop thinking about her laugh. Cornelia actually laughed at him. It shouldn’t feel like such an accomplishment, considering Niall had managed to do it as well, but it did feel like an important achievement to Harry. Ridiculous, Harry whispered to himself.

Soon enough, the pizza had been ordered and Harry was back on the couch, Niall and Cornelia on his either side. Niall decided that since he had nothing better to do, he’ll stick around to watch the ‘boring, government shit’ that they were planning on watching. He did complain though; he said he’d rather watching Keeping Up With The Kadarshians instead of this, and he really bloody hates that show. That made both Harry and Cornelia laugh.

They put on the Belgium government videos and started watching them shortly after. The pizza arrived soon, and Cornelia gasped when she saw that Niall ordered a pineapple pizza.

**Chapter 5: Tuesday**

Harry didn’t have as many classes on Tuesday. And his first class didn’t start until after nine in the morning. That was a really good thing, considering Harry woke up late on Tuesday morning. Again, yes. The previous evening had been really fucking long. The pizza arrived around eight-thirty, and Cornelia queued up the bunch of educational videos she had downloaded. Those took a whole hour to watch itself. The pizza was, of course, already finished by the time they finished watching all the videos.

Then, once those were done, Cornelia put on the movie about government and internal disputes within a country. She said it would be good to do a little research on other countries and their government and political situation; it would help with the compare and contrast part of their paper. It _was_ rather good logic, so Harry didn’t argue. The only problem was that the movie was literally three hours long. They realised that a little late; namely, when they had only watched half an hour of it.

They didn’t want to leave a movie incompletely watched, so they decided to continue watching it. Niall had however, decided that he was done with watching all this boring government stuff and hence, promptly retired to his room as soon as he finished eating. Cornelia and Harry however sat through the whole movie, which finished at one thirty a.m. at night. Cornelia was absolutely exhausted, and Harry offered to let sleep over, but she politely declined and somehow managed to drive back to the dorms. Because she was so exhausted, she ended up forgetting her precious laptop at Harry’s flat.

Harry went to bed around two a.m. and hence, he woke up late on Tuesday morning, still really tired. Lucky for him, his flatmate was an absolute angel and already had a pot of strong coffee going. Niall nodded at him sympathetically, “Figured you’d need coffee after watching four hours of that shit last night.”

Harry wrapped his arm around Niall, “Nialler, lad, you are a godsend. Heaven’s best angel. Heaven is missing out on you. Heaven needs more angels like you. Actually, no, I won’t share. Nialler, my angel.”

Niall burst out laughing and pushed him off, “Alright, mate, that’s enough of the flattery. I’m a good flatmate, I know.”

Harry nodded solemnly, “The best.”

Niall laughed again as he poured out a cup of coffee for Harry and slid it over to him. He asked conversationally as Harry took his first sip of coffee, “So, when is your first class?”

Harry shrugged in response, “It’s in thirty minutes. Thank god, because there is no way I can drive to uni without taking a shower. And coffee. And food. I’m so fucking tired.”

Niall, being the absolute saint of a flatmate that he was, shook his head smiling, “Alright, alright, mate. Go take a shower. I’ll set up two bowls of cereal for us.”

Harry hugged him again to thank him before making his way back to his room. He was actually so grateful for Niall. He was a really good flatmate, and an even better friend. Harry took a quick shower and his brushed his teeth before making his way back to the dining table, where Niall had put out two bowls of cereal, as promised. Harry gratefully took a seat and ate his cereal.

Soon after, he gathered his things and Cornelia’s laptop, ready to leave for college. Niall tagged along too, and Harry was more than happy to give him a ride. They pulled up into the parking lot a little before Harry’s first class started. Niall and Harry parted ways in the parking lot itself. Harry then went ahead to try and find Cornelia so he could return her laptop to her.

He found her standing in front of the class next to his. He called out as soon as she caught his eye, “Hey! Cornelia!” She whipped around to face him, and the look of relief on her face when she saw that Harry had her laptop was quite evident.

Cornelia cried out in delight when Harry stopped in front of her, “Oh my god, you brought my laptop!”

Harry handed her laptop over to her, “Yeah, of course. Noticed it sitting on my dining table today morning.”

Cornelia tucked her laptop into her bag pack before flinging her arms around Harry, “Thank you, thank you, thank you! Oh my god. Thank you!”

Harry was taken aback; of course, he was. Three days ago, Cornelia was hating on him constantly and she barely even spoke to him decently. And now she was hugging him for bringing back her laptop. Life was really fucking weird sometimes.

He hugged her back comfortably, “Of course, Cornelia Street.”

She pulled back, her cheeks flushed, “I’ll let that slide since you were nice enough to bring back my laptop to me safely. Seriously, Harry, my laptop is so important to me.”

Harry chuckled, “I know. It’s no problem. Hey, I have to go, but I’ll see you after class to talk about the paper?”

Cornelia just nodded in response before entering her class. Harry went ahead to walk into his class as well. He didn’t want to stop talking to her, but he did have a class to get to. He almost blushed thinking about the hug Cornelia gave him literally moments ago. Whipped, Harry thought to himself. But then he forced his brain to backtrack. He met Cornelia three days ago. There is no way he is allowed to think about any of that relationship and feelings nonsense.

For the rest of the day, Harry tried his best not to overthink the situation with Cornelia. They were barely friends, he kept telling himself. But she was still gorgeous and funny, weird and perfect. Harry cringed at himself and his own thoughts. Come on, Harry, he whispered to himself in his brain. You barely know her, he added.

He had a few classes throughout the day, so he mainly focussed on that. He didn’t have political science today, and since that was the only class he shared with Cornelia, he wouldn’t be seeing her during college hours. However, they did say that they’ll meet up after class to talk about the paper. So, there was that, he supposed.

Harry was exhausted by the time he was done with his last class of the day. He dragged himself to the parking lot and to his car. He was so done with classes and college and essays and any of that stuff. He just wanted to go home, and maybe get some food and do something fun. But of course, Cornelia would never let him have that, would she?

Cornelia approached him in the parking lot, “Harry, hey!”

Harry stopped to turn and look at her, “Is this going to be a thing? Talking in the parking lot?”

Cornelia shrugged, a grin fixed on her face, “Maybe it will. We’ll see, won’t we?”

Harry rolled his eyes, “I guess we will. Anyway, what’s up? What do you want to do today for the paper?”

Cornelia spoke, “Well I found this podcast about various types of governments and how they are working for various countries. I figured we could listen to that. But when and where, though?”

Harry thought that over for a short while before grinning at Cornelia, “How about we drive around town? We can get either of our cars and get food from a drive through and listen to the podcast.”

Cornelia’s lips parted as she considered that, “I’ll give it to you; you do have some good ideas. That sounds good. Really good, actually. Alright, can you pick me up then? I’ll email you my dorm address?”

Harry blinked, unable to fathom that Cornelia was going to willingly give him her address. Wow. He nodded, “Works for me. I’ll see you at seven then?”

She nodded in agreement before starting to walk out of the parking lot. Harry, of course, stopped her to ask, “Hey, where are you going? Did you park somewhere else today?”

When Cornelia turned around to answer him, there was a playful grin on her face, “I walked today, actually. Figured it’d be better for the environment.”

Harry’s jaw dropped, “No way. Seriously? Well in that case, do you want a ride to your dorm?”

Cornelia easily agreed to that. That way, Harry could see where Cornelia lived and wouldn’t have trouble finding it later that evening. They played the album Lover by Taylor Swift in the car, again. Even though it was just a five-minute drive. Cornelia insisted that they could listen to at least one song. Namely, Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince. Harry dropped her off in front of her dorm building as soon as that song ended, and Afterglow started playing. She waved goodbye and told him she’d see him at seven.

So, later that seven, Harry pulled up in front of Cornelia’s dorm building a minute before seven. She was out of the building and stepped into his car soon enough. She waved her phone at him, “I downloaded all the podcast episodes.”

Harry groaned in faux frustration, “More boring government shit? Wow, thanks Cornelia.” She rolled her eyes, “Hush it. So, which drive through are we going to?”

Harry just winked at her before he drove to a Subway drive through. Kind of a let-down after the wink, but okay. Both of them got a sandwich each. Cornelia then put on the first episode of the government podcast as Harry started driving aimlessly. They spent the next couple hours eating, listening to the podcast and talking occasionally. Sounds like a date, doesn’t it? At least it did to Harry’s brain.

**Chapter 6: Wednesday**

Harry’s Wednesday classes simply refused to end. They had collectively decided to last longer and as a result, drive Harry crazy. He had seven classes to attend today. It was absolutely terrible. At least he’d woken up before his alarm went off and wasn’t late to his first class. He had showered and grabbed a quick breakfast just in time.

He, however, made a split-second decision to drive to university today, instead of taking the bus. That did not work out well. His car was out of gas, due to the previous day’s drive-and-podcast session with Cornelia. Since he didn’t have enough time to stop by a gas station, he just cursed at his car a couple times before walking to the bus station.

He didn’t see Cornelia all morning. However, he did have political science as his last class, so he would be seeing her then. Somehow, the prospect of seeing Cornelia soon made him feel like all his classes were proceeding super slow. He kept checking the time, wanting the class to be over so he could go to the next one and eventually make it to political science.

It was weird, really. He was unusually excited about seeing Cornelia. Last evening had been so much fun. After they got their Subway sandwiches, they drove around aimlessly for a couple of hours. They finished listening to five episodes of the government podcast. Quite productive, isn’t it? Once that was done, neither of them really wanted to end the night, so they went ahead to get ice cream and park in a secluded spot so they could enjoy their ice cream. They also had interesting conversations.

It was easy to talk to Cornelia. She was rather funny, and really interesting to talk to. Harry was sure he wouldn’t mind having to talk to her for the rest of his life. The thought of that scared him. He met her like five days ago. It was too soon to be thinking anything of this sort. Normally, Harry would try to push all these thoughts out of his brain, but at this point, he was rather used to thinking about Cornelia constantly. It was like an obsession on his part. Honestly, it sounds creepier than it is.

Presently, Harry walked to his political class, a sense of nervousness rolling around in his stomach. He was expecting to see Cornelia _inside_ the class, but he ran into her a few yards away from the entrance to their classroom. Literally.

Cornelia complained, “Can you watch where you’re going?”

Harry spoke sheepishly, “Sorry, Cornelia. What’s up?”

Cornelia rolled her eyes as the two of them started walking to the classroom, “What’s up is that we’re going to be late to our class.”

Harry checked the time before speaking, “We still have like five minutes and we’re already here. You need to chill, Cornelia.”

Apparently, Cornelia was not in a mood to play nice. So, she just shot him a glare before walking towards her seat. Harry just laughed as he followed. All their classes at the university consisted of fifty long, gruelling, boring minutes. Harry was pretty sure he fell asleep at some point in today’s political science lecture. He liked the subject, he did, really. Well, sometimes. But today was not it. He was bored out of his mind and just wanted to go home.

Fortunately, he zoned out, true to his nature, and Cornelia did not disturb him or scold him for paying attention. Which was weird on her part, Harry admitted, but he wasn’t going to complain. Class was finally dismissed after what felt like a whole eternity. He followed Cornelia out of the classroom, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Harry asked, yawning, “So, what are we doing today? For the paper, of course.”

Cornelia sighed in response, “ _We_ are going to the library to research using real books.”

Harry groaned, “Seriously? Of all the days you could have picked for library research, it had to be today?”

Cornelia snapped, “Well, we don’t have much time left, do we? We need to actually write the whole paper as well, and I figured we’ll write the whole thing tomorrow. Friday, which is day after tomorrow, by the way, is the submission date!”

Harry sighed, “Fine. Whatever you say. When do you want to meet to go to the library?”

Cornelia said hesitantly, “I was thinking we could go now? I’m so tired today, and I really, really want to go home early.”

Harry sighed, but he followed her to the library anyway. He was in no mood to go to the library and _research_ of all things, but it has to be done, he supposed. Over the next two hours, the wo of them got at least four different encyclopaedias, and a bunch of documentary books about the Belgian government. At this point, Harry was so tired of Belgium. In fact, he was considering boycotting Belgian chocolate because of this. And he loved his Belgian chocolate.

Other than doing their research, true to their nature, they bickered and argues over everything. They were really exhausted and were not in the mood to tolerate any bullshit that the other did. It was fair enough, they supposed.

Anyway, once the time passed the two-hour mark, Cornelia threw up her hands, “I’m done. If I have to read the word ‘government’ one more time, I’ll personally send an email to Belgium’s Prime Minister about how their government and constitution sucks.”

Harry burst out laughing, “Fair enough. I’ll help you email them as well.”

Cornelia giggled, “Thanks. That’s so kind of you.”

Harry rolled his eyes, a dork grin on his face, “Yeah, yeah. So, it’s almost seven. Do you want to go get some food or something?”

Cornelia beamed, “Yes! I skipped lunch today because I had a doubt to clear with the professor, and I’m literally starving.”

Harry shot her a sympathetic look as they walked out of the library together, “That sucks. Okay well what do you wanna eat?”

Cornelia clapped her hands in excitement, “Oh, you know that cute little diner near campus? The one with the delicious apple pie? We should go there!”

Harry racked his brains to figure out which diner she meant, and then it finally hit him. She was right; they did have the best apple pie. Harry loved his apple pie just like any other normal person. He nodded, “Sound’s good. I think that place is called Emma’s? Either ways, you’re going to have to drive. I took the bus today.”

Cornelia told him that yeah, she could drive. Within few minutes, they were in her car, Cornelia in the driver’s seat, driving to Emma’s Diner. The aroma of freshly baked, warm apple pie hit their noses as soon as they stepped into the diner. Cornelia beamed at Harry; she was always excited to eat at Emma’s Diner, but especially today.

Harry playfully rolled his eyes as they got a booth. Soon enough, they had ordered their food. They were quite simple, really. Both of them ordered a burger each, a large fries to share, and two slices of apple pie. The food was out within minutes, and Harry and Cornelia stopped their conversation to get to their food. Cornelia was not kidding when she said she was starving.

Everything was going great. The food was greasy and satisfying, the jukebox music was pleasant, and the diner feels were real. Then when they were almost done with their pies, Cornelia’s phone lit up with a text. She excused herself to answer to it. Her eyes swept over the screen for a minute. She paled as soon as she started reading the text. Literally. All the colour drained from her face, and her fingers started shaking subtly.

Harry asked, concerned, “Cornelia? Is everything okay?”

Cornelia swallowed, “Um. Yes. I need to… Can you…”

Harry looked down at their plates, “I’ll pay and meet you out in the car. Go.”

She whispered, “Thank you. I’ll pay you back.” She then practically ran away.

Harry was going to say that it was okay, and she didn’t to pay her back, but she was already gone. So, he quickly paid the bill and tipped the waiter, before rushing out to Cornelia’s car. She was already in the driver’s seat, but she made no indication that she was going to start driving. She just sat there, shaking, her fists clenched and her face really pale. Harry got into the passenger seat, “Cornelia? What’s wrong?”

She shook her head slowly, “Nothing. It’s okay. I just… Got a message from my ex. That’s it. He… said some not so nice things.” She slowly slid over phone to Harry, who was, of course, surprised by the gesture. He took a quick look at the text, and immediately sucked in a sharp breath. The message basically consisted of a bunch of degrading words directed towards Cornelia.

Harry deleted the message, “Cornelia. Love. I don’t know your history with this guy, but none of what he said is true. I personally think you’re great, and wonderful and anybody would be lucky to have you. Honest.”

Cornelia looked up at him with soft eyes, “You think so? And we broke up years ago. He just gets drunk sometimes and texts. I don’t like being called any of that.”

Harry scoffed, “I don’t blame you. And yes, I do think so. Don’t let him get to you, Cornflakes.”

Cornelia giggled at that and reached up to hug him, “Thank you, Harry. I appreciate it.”

Harry hugged back tight, “Of course. Anytime.”

Cornelia pulled back a minute later and whipped out her phone and started typing on it.

Harry asked, a suspicious tone to his voice, “You aren’t texting him back, are you?”

Cornelia shook her head and kept typing. A second later, Harry’s phone dinged with an email. He raised his eyebrows questioningly, in response to which Cornelia just playfully rolled her eyes. Harry grinned at her before pulling out his phone and opened the email from her.

_Harry_ _,  
_ ** _+44_** _7911 123456_  
Cornelia

Harry’s jaw promptly dropped. He gaped at Cornelia, “Is that your phone number? You’re giving me your phone number?”

Cornelia rolled her eyes, “It’s not a big deal. I think it’s well deserved.”

Harry teased, “Ah, Cornelia, you’re going soft on me.”

Cornelia just rolled her eyes again as she turned on the engine, “Don’t make me block you already, Haz.”

Harry’s laughter rung out in the car after that.

**Chapter 7: Thursday**

The rest of Wednesday evening had been fine. Harry and Cornelia drove around for a while again. Of course, it was Cornelia driving this time. She then finally dropped him off in front of his flat, and they parted ways with a hug. So, hugging was a thing now.

When Harry finally made it to his flat, he found Niall waiting in the living room. Niall rolled his eyes, “Welcome home, dickhead.”

Harry chuckled, “What’s with the hostility?”

Niall threw a shoe at him, “I’ll tell you what’s with the hostility. I’m hungry, and you’re late and you’re now required to make me food.”

Harry cursed, “Shit, sorry. I went to a diner with Cornelia. Lost track of time, I guess.”

Niall raised an eyebrow, “With Cornelia, you say?”

Harry nodded as he made his way to the kitchen, “Yeah. We first went to the library for research and then just got some food. No big deal.”

Niall scoffed as Harry started making something for him to eat, “No big deal? You do proper like her, mate.”

Harry sighed, “I don’t even want to think about that. It’s of no use, mate. She’ll never reciprocate my feelings. Not that I have feelings for her or anything.”

Niall just chuckled, “Sure, you don’t.”

Harry was really not in the mood to argue, so that was an effective end to the conversation. In the next few hours, Niall ate whatever Harry made him, the two of them watched a footie match that was on the telly and then Harry went to sleep early. He did have a long day ahead of him the next day.

He woke up fairly early on Thursday. He didn’t really have any important classes on Thursdays, considering Wednesdays were absolute nightmares. So, he was just going to stay home. Of course, he did have that annoying political science paper to write. Speaking of that, he pulled out his phone and sent a text to Cornelia before making breakfast.

_When and where do we start working on writing the damned paper?_

The response came in within minutes.

**_Oh, you texted! I don’t know; should I come over?_ **

_I mean, you did give me your number… I’m not going to email you when I have your number, Cornelia._

**_Alright, alright. Kids these days. Back in my day, everybody used emails._ **

Harry laughed to himself, shaking his head at her antics. Cornelia was really fucking weird, and he was really fucking endeared.

_Okay, grandma. Can you come over by yourself or do you need a cane to walk?_

**_Don’t be silly, Haz. I’m not going to be walking. I’ll be driving :)_ **

_Okay, well can you make it fast? We do have to write a 5000-word paper, you know._

**_We do, but first, you need to chill, mate._ **

Harry rolled his eyes before responding, even though she couldn’t see him.

_Be here by nine, for god’s sake. Do you want toast and eggs?_

**_Sure. See you then._ **

Harry put away his phone with a smile on his face. For some reason, he was really, really endeared by this girl. And she called him ‘Haz’ twice now. The nickname induced butterflies in Harry’s stomach. It was absurd.

Anyway, Harry went ahead to make toast and eggs for breakfast. Cornelia arrived at his doorstep a little before nine, and he was more than happy to let her in. Niall had already left for college, so it was just the two of them for breakfast this time. It was a rather domestic scene. To Harry’s surprise, he liked the feeling of it.

Once breakfast was done, Harry cleared the dining table. They planned on writing their whole paper there. They began working on it soon after, starting it with a description of what a federal government is and what exactly makes Belgium a federal government. They had done their research, so it shouldn’t be too hard to write the paper.

Of course, it wasn’t as effortless they had expected it to be. They obviously kept arguing about the layout of the points and the structure of the paper. Harry could tell that it was going to be a really long day. They tried not to take many breaks, but Cornelia couldn’t stare at the screen for very long.

They however did take a lunch break. Cornelia ordered some Chinese, demanding that she gets to pay this time, considering Harry paid for last night’s dinner. Harry agreed easily. He liked Cornelia, but he wasn’t going to turn down free Chinese. Nope, that would be insane. They allowed themselves thirty minutes of relax time, which they spent eating and chatting, of course.

Once that was done, they went back to working on the paper. Sometime in the evening, Cornelia got rid of her contacts and pulled out her glasses from her bag.

Harry blinked at her in surprise, “You wear glasses?”

She blushed, “Yeah. I don’t mind wearing my glasses, but I like contacts as well.”

Harry grinned, “Well, you look cute.”

Cornelia rolled her eyes, a flush creeping up to her face, “Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. Now, if you’re done with talking about my glasses, and we go back to writing about community governments in Belgium?”

Harry sighed, “I’m so boycotting all things Belgian after this.”

Cornelia just laughed at that, and they went back to working on their paper. Niall got back to the flat a while later, and he was quite surprised at their dedication to the ridiculous political science paper. He didn’t bother them or anything and went back to his room to work on his own homework.

Sometime later in the evening, the three of them ordered pizza and Harry and Cornelia took a quick break to eat. Then they went back to working on their paper. It was exhausting, but they finally finished writing and proofreading their paper around eleven at night. Cornelia emailed a copy to Harry before packing up her things.

She let out a long sigh, “Finally. I can’t fucking feel my fingers after all that typing.”

Harry groaned as he wriggled his fingers, “Same. At least we took turns typing.”

Cornelia almost sobbed thinking about that, “Oh God, I don’t even want to imagine what it’d be like if I had to type the whole thing myself.”

Harry sighed, “Yeah. At least we’re done with this now. We just have to turn this in tomorrow and that’s it, we’re done.”

Cornelia checked something on her phone, “Oh, speaking of that. We just have to email it to him, right? I don’t think we have Political Science tomorrow. I think the professor told us to email it to him before Friday, right?”

Harry’s heart dropped to his stomach. If they submit the project today… That means he probably won’t ever get to hang out with Cornelia again. His insides were churning with dread. This can’t be it, can it? He pushed those thoughts aside as he replied, “Right. Yeah, I think so. I guess you should email it to him right now?”

Cornelia nodded and pulled out her laptop again. She quickly turned it on and opened her email. She wrote out a formal email regarding the submission of their paper and attached the file. Harry looked over her shoulder to peek at the screen.

_The Federal Government of Belgium- Harry Styles and Cornelia Brooks._

Their names put together made Harry feel things he was sure he didn’t want to feel. Cornelia put away her laptop again as soon as she sent the email. The two of them then walked out of the flat and down to Cornelia’s car. Cornelia put her bag in her car before she looked back at Harry, “So. I guess, that’s done, huh?”

Harry swallowed, “Yeah. You can go back to ignoring my existence now I suppose.”

Cornelia rolled her eyes, “I’m not going to do that. Come on, Haz.”

Harry laughed, “If you say so. But me and you both know that after today you’ll never hang out with me again. At least, not like this.”

Cornelia replied stubbornly, “False.”

Harry winked, “God?”

Cornelia laughed aloud, “No! Well yes, that’s a bomb song. I meant that yes, we will still hang out. Of course, we will.”

Harry mentally crossed his fingers as he said boldly, “Any particular reason why?”

Cornelia searched his face for a few seconds before settling for an answer, “I sort of… Like you.”

Harry blinked, “Excuse me?”

Cornelia shook her head quickly, “Never mind. It’s ridiculous.”

Harry involuntarily took hold of her hand, “No, no! I’m just… Did I interpret that correctly?”

Cornelia replied shyly, “Maybe?”

Harry spoke disbelievingly, “Cornelia.”

Cornelia hit his arm, “Oh my god, stop! Yes, I sort of do like you that way. Is it too weird? It is, isn’t it? We’ve known each other for literally just a week.”

Harry shrugged, “It’s not weird. I do like you too, you know. We’re probably crazy, but eh, that’s okay.”

Cornelia gaped at him, “Really? I…”

Harry grinned, “I mean. Yeah. Do you like… I don’t know, want to go on a proper date sometime?”

Cornelia gaped at him for a few seconds before flinging her arms around him, “Oh my god, yes!”

Harry laughed as he hugged her back, “Alright, then. I’ll text you.”

Cornelia pulled back, “Okay! Can I kiss you? I want to. Can I?”

Harry’s eyes widened of their own accord. Oh, wow. He grinned softly, “Yeah. Go ahead.”

Cornelia rolled her eyes before pressing her lips to his. Her lips fit perfectly against his, and Harry swore that nothing has ever felt better. The feeling of peace that washed over him was so strong. He pulled away unwillingly a few seconds later, “It’s late. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Cornelia nodded, “Yes. Of course.” She was just going to get into her car, but she stopped and turned around to face Harry again, “Hey! You know what this probably makes us?”

Harry raised his eyebrows questioningly, to which Cornelia responded with a secretive grin, “Miss Americana and Heartbreak Prince.”

Harry just burst out laughing; Cornelia Brooks was something else.

**Epilogue**

Harry woke up in his bed, next to a warm body. Opening his eyes was troublesome first thing in the morning. So, he let his fingers slide around the person next to him. His fingertips touched a soft, comforting body and feathery hair. There were fairly sturdy arms wrapped around his body. He shifted his body sideways so he could kiss the person next to him.

Louis pressed a kiss to his head, “Good morning, H. Sleep well?”

Harry’s eyes flew open and he rushed to sit up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before turning to look at Louis, “Oh my god. Louis! You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

Louis blinked at him in confusion, “Uh. Where else would I be? We literally live together?”

Harry almost sobbed in relief, “Oh my god, we do! Yes! Jesus fucking Christ.”

Louis sat up next to him, “Uh. I have no idea what you’re on about. Bad dream?”

Harry shook his head, “Bad dream? More like a horrifying nightmare. That was so scary, what the fuck.”

Louis laughed at him, “Really? I wanna know. Oi, I’ll go make us tea and then you can tell me all about it. We don’t have class for another hour anyway.”

Harry nodded in relief, “Class. Yes! We have so many same classes, right? Yes, oh my god.”

Louis rolled his eyes, “I genuinely don’t know what this could be about, so I’ll just go get the tea. I’m very interested to hear about this nightmare.”

Louis then went ahead to their kitchen to make two cups of tea, while Harry hopped into the shower. A few minutes later, Harry was done showering and he walked out to the dining room, where Louis was already sitting, sipping from his teacup. Harry gratefully took the second cup as he sat down, “Right. The nightmare. It’s kind of a long story and definitely a rollercoaster. I’m warning you.”

Louis chuckled, “I still want to hear about it, babe. I have a feeling it’s going to be hilarious.”

Harry rolled his eyes but started describing it anyway, “Right. So, I apparently lived with Niall and…”

Louis cut him off, already laughing, “You lived with Niall? Niall lives with Liam and Zayn!”

Harry glared at him, “Louis. I know that, you idiot. Will you shut up and let him continue?”

Louis giggled, “Alright, continue.”

Harry obliged, “Right. So, I was late to my first class because Niall and I were partying late the night before, and then I ended up stealing this girl’s parking spot. And she was in my political science class and we had to sit next to each other and consequently got partnered for a really important paper.”

Louis interrupted him to ask, “What was her name?”

Harry sighed, “Cornelia. Cornelia Brooks, I think.”

Louis bubbled with laughter, “As in like Cornelia Street from Taylor’s album?”

Harry sighed again, “Yeah. Exactly. That was our inside joke apparently. Anyways long story short, we hung out every day for a week to work on our paper, and Niall hung out with us like twice as well. Niall kept telling me how I’m proper gone for Cornelia and I tried to deny it, but by the time we submitted our paper, we both had feelings for each other.”

Louis was proper howling with laughter by now as Harry cringed, “It’s not that funny, you know.”

Louis pretended to wipe tears from his eyes, “Please, H. That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all my life. _Niall_ was convinced you have feelings for a girl? Please, that lad is obsessed with us and our relationship.”

Harry chuckled, “I know, right. Apparently, the album Lover was my and Cornelia’s thing. Heck, when we sort of made it official in the dream, she said that the whole us liking each other thing makes us Miss Americana and Heartbreak Prince.”

Harry cringed again, making Louis laugh harder, “Oh my god, this is so funny. You poor soul. No wonder you call that a nightmare.”

Harry pinched his boyfriend, “Oi, hush it. You didn’t even exist in my nightmare universe. It was horrifying. I’d like you to have a whole entire love story dream about Eleanor from Physiology class.”

Louis’ jaw dropped in horror, “Are you trying to curse me? What the fuck, Harry. That’s so rude.”

Harry smirked, “It’s only fair, babe.”

Louis sighed, “I hate you. I really do.”

Harry read over and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, giggling, “I love you.”

Louis rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah. I love you too. Anyway, we’re meeting up with lads tonight, yeah? Gonna tell them about this dream?”

Harry smacked his arm, “Shut up.”

Louis laughed, “Okay, okay. Let’s go. We have to get to class.”

Harry grinned as he followed Louis out of their shared college flat, “Hey, Lou. Guess what this whole situation makes you?”

Louis looked back at Harry, “What?”

Harry winked, “My Lover.”

Louis snorted with laughter; he was in love with the biggest dork of all time. He wasn’t complaining though.


	2. Short Sequel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short sequel to Lover (H.S)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The sequel nobody asked for and which I put in the wrong fic for weeks

**Always You**

Harry was already up and about at seven in the morning. It was a Saturday, and he didn’t have any classes to go to, but he was naturally an early riser. Louis, his boyfriend, was sleeping next to him. Since he didn’t have anything better to do, Harry decided to stay in bed and scroll through Pinterest for project ideas. He took a photography course, for some reason. Well, the reason being that he really fucking loved photography. Anyway, he had a photography project to do and he wasn’t above looking through Pinterest for some inspiration, thank you very much.

Fifteen minutes into his ‘scroll-through-Pinterest fest, he heard a strangled gasp next to him. He put down his phone immediately and peeked at Louis in concern. He almost went back to his phone when he noticed that Louis was still again; but then, Louis suddenly thrashed in his side of the bed. Few seconds later, Louis was properly twisting and turning, pained gasps leaving his lips occasionally. Harry was hoping that whatever Louis was dreaming about would stop, but it had been ten minutes and Louis still hadn’t stopped thrashing. This time Harry decided that he had had enough.

He softly touched Louis’ arm and whispered, “Lou? Louis. Wake up, love.”

Louis’ body tightened with tension as soon as the words left Harry’s mouth. Harry frowned to himself; what could he possibly be dreaming about? It was definitely not good; Harry at least knew that much.

He tried waking up Louis again; nudging him gently, “Louis. Lou, wake up.”

Louis wriggled some more in his spot, turning away from Harry. However, he didn’t stop moving in discomfort. Harry sighed to himself; clearly trying to wake him up gently wasn’t working.

This time Harry properly pulled at Louis’ arm, speaking loudly, “Wake the fuck up!”

His tactic worked this time. Louis sat up immediately; a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead, and his hands tightly clenched. He turned to Harry, gasping, “Eleanor?”

Harry didn’t know what to think about that, so he slowly spoke in response, “Uh, what about her?”

Louis asked frantically, “Is she gone?”

Harry looked around in confusion, “Lou, we’re in our apartment. Eleanor isn’t here. You were kicking in your sleep, though. Bad dream?”

Louis gaped at his boyfriend, “Dream? Oh. Dream! Right. It was a dream. Jesus fucking Christ. Just a dream. Nightmare, actually.”

Harry chuckled softly, “Yeah, love. Wanna tell me about it?”

Louis reached over the edge of the bed to get his water bottle. He drank a little water before speaking again, “Yeah. You’ll laugh at me though.”

Harry grinned, “In that case, I’m excited. Tell me!”

Louis hummed as he moved the blankets off of him, “I don’t know if I should.”

Harry smacked his arm, “I’m breaking up with you!”

Louis snorted, clearly over his nightmare, “To do what? Date Cornelia?”

Harry blinked in confusion. Who even is Cornelia? Then, it occurred to him. A few weeks ago, he had had a dream which was basically nothing short of a romcom. A cliché, straight couple romcom. In that specific nightmare, Harry had befriended a girl named Cornelia Brooks and had eventually gone ahead to fall in love with her. It had been the scariest dream of his life, really.

Presently, Harry was really suspicious. Why would Louis bring up the Cornelia dream now? The two of them had laughed about it and moved on weeks ago. Unless…

Harry gasped dramatically, “No way! Louis, did you have a similar nightmare to my Cornelia dream?”

Louis’ first instinct was to scoff and say, “As if!”

Harry teased, “Liar! You totally had a dream like that. Tell me everything!”

Louis groaned and tried to push Harry off the bead. Of course, that didn’t work, and it ended up making Harry laugh harder. He chuckled, “Come on; spit it out already. I’ll make you pancakes if you tell me the whole dream in detail.”

Louis argued, “You’ll make me pancakes anyway.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Now why would I do that?”

Louis glared at him, “Because I’m cute and you love me.”

Harry snorted, “Alright, lover. Whatever you say. Tell me about the dream already.”

Louis picked up a pillow and hit Harry with it before starting his story, “Fine! I hate you though! Anyway, in the dream, I basically woke up next to Eleanor.”

Harry interrupted him, already dissolving in peals of laughter, “Eleanor from Physiology class! Just like I hoped!”

Louis flipped him off before continuing, “Anyway, I woke up next to Eleanor, and apparently we had been together for the last four years, and had an apartment together.”

Harry grinned, “So basically us, but make it Elounor.”

Louis stared at him, “What the fuck is Elounor?”

Harry laughed harder, “Your ship name with Eleanor, of course!”

Louis muttered a ‘what the fuck’ before continuing his story, “Anyways, it was our four-year anniversary, and she had lots of plans for us. So, we went to the carnival and spent the whole day there, before heading to our favourite diner for anniversary dinner.”

Harry interrupted him to ask, “Favourite diner, huh? Was it Emma’s Diner?”

Louis raised an eyebrow, “Yeah. How did you know that?”

Harry laughed, “That was my and Cornelia’s diner too!”

Louis groaned, “What the fuck, Harry? Did you curse me to have this dream or something? It’s freaky how similar the dreams are.”

Harry kissed his head, “Soulmate shit, babe.”

Louis smacked his stomach, “Fuck that. I’m divorcing you.”

Harry rolled his eyes fondly, “We’re not even married yet, but good try.”

Louis muttered in annoyance, “Yet, he says. I’m never marrying you, you dumbass. I just know you somehow put this dream in my head as revenge for laughing at your dream!”

Harry rolled his eyes, still laughing, “I don’t have such elaborate powers, Lou. Anyway, continue.”

Louis huffed before obliging, “Right, yes. We had cheesecake at the diner. By the way, we should get some today! Right anyway, then at the diner Eleanor told me that she wanted to adopt a dog. She said that considering we’d been together for so long; it was only ideal to get a dog. For god’s sake, she even had the breed and the name picked out.”

Harry asked, grinning idiotically, “Well? What name did she pick?”

Louis wrinkled his nose, “Bruce. I don’t know how I feel about that. She said she loves walking dogs and wants to do it as often as she can. Hence why she wants her own dogs.”

Harry just laughed, as Louis continued his story, “Then after dinner, we got back to our shared apartment. The thought of which, by the way, disgusts me. Then we somehow made it into the bedroom and she was…”

Louis paused at that and shuddered. Harry grinned, “She was what?”

Louis winced, “She was trying to have sex with me.”

At this point, Harry was properly howling. He was quite ready to fall off the bed actually. Louis pulled him back onto the bed, “Stop laughing! It’s not that funny!”

Harry wiped the tears from his eyes, “You don’t know how wrong you are, Lou. This is the funniest thing I’ve heard in my life. Karma is so great, honestly.”

Louis pinched Harry, making him laugh harder, before speaking again, “Anyway, she was trying to convince me to let her give me a blow job when you woke me up. I’m kind of thankful for that, actually. So yeah, thanks Harold.”

Harry giggled, “No problem, Lou. Although I do wish that I hadn’t woken you up. Cornelia and I never had sex, so hearing about the Elounor sex would have been pretty funny. _And,_ it would also make your dream worse than mine.”

Louis glared at Harry, “Fuck off. You suck.”

Harry giggled some more, “No, love. Eleanor sucks you off.”

Louis literally pushed Harry off the bed. Harry landed on the floor with a loud thump, but he still didn’t stop laughing. Maniac. Louis got out of the bed and declared, “I’m going to Niall, Zayn and Liam’s for breakfast. You can have your pancakes by yourself.”

Harry got up to his feet and walked over to Louis, wrapping his arms around his tiny boyfriend, “Alright, alright. I’m sorry. Not really, but go with it. I’ll stop laughing now, okay?”

Louis leaned into his touch, “You better. Or else, I will actually break up with you.”

Harry laughed against the top of his head, “Nah, you love me too much.”

Louis muttered, “Doubting all my stupid decisions right now, though.”

Harry laughed again before pulling away and pressing a soft kiss to Louis’ lips, “I’m gonna go make pancakes now. And later today, we are going to get cheesecake at Emma’s Diner. Right after we tell the lads about your dream, of course.”

Louis groaned, “Harry!”

Harry just laughed before making his way to the kitchen, “Sorry not sorry, love.”


End file.
